Staff Correspondent

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested five alleged snatchers with passports at the capital’s Motijheel on Monday night.
Saiful Islam, Sohel Hossain, Abdur Rahim, Abdullah Al Quaiyum, and Md Shahjahan allegedly used to snatch passports with visas from travelers abroad and realise money from them through blackmailing.
Six passports with visas of different countries and 10 cell phone sets were also seized from them.
Sabbir Ahmed, acting commanding officer of Rab-3, said they arrested the five after one Md Jahangir, 45, of Chandpur filed a complaint alleging that a gang of criminals had snatched a passport with visas of Saudi Arabia on it and other belongings while he was on the way to Pan Pacific Hotel Sonargaon around 3:30pm on April 19.
“When the victim made a call to his snatched phone, the criminals demanded Tk 1 lakh for the return of the passport, the air ticket and the cell phone,” said the Rab-3 chief quoting the victim. He said the muggers also had asked to stay at Motijheel with the money for receiving the mugged items.
He said based on the complaint, a Rab-3 team arrested Saiful, Sohel and Rahim around 8:00pm while Quaiyum and Shahjahan at 11:30pm.